


Quarters

by mybrainproblems



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Eren is very sleepy, History Majors, Laundry, Laundry rooms are really good places to sleep, Levi is also very sleepy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-18 22:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2364449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mybrainproblems/pseuds/mybrainproblems
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laundry on Wednesdays at 2am? It's a date! Except not that kind of date. Really? Really.</p><p>Eren is a sleep-deprived second year history major and Levi has some words of wisdom (don't do the readings, avoid Woerman at all costs) and maybe some freckles on his nose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quarters

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was commissioned by ninanna for the "Met doing laundry at 2am" college AU.
> 
> Enjoy!

As much as Eren Jaeger enjoyed being a history major there was one very big downside; historiographies. His friends’ work load tended to look like a J curve. Professors would give them hell for the first week or two and then their workload would drop off considerably until the last two weeks when they would go into a frenzied panic and stay up for fifty hours straight writing final papers and studying for exams. _Eren_ on the other hand had a fairly steady high workload. Historiographies were the bane of his existence and he had spent his first year blissfully unaware of them. Of course, two of his fall courses his second year required historiographies to be written and handed in just after mid-term exams so that they had “plenty of time” to then further research and write their final papers.

His professors had been kind that first semester and had held their hands through the process since everyone in the class was a second year student. His second semester however was a totally different story. He supposed that he should have seen it coming given that he had signed up for a class that ended up being mostly third year students but he wasn’t about to back down from the challenge, not even when he looked at the semester’s reading list and realized that he was expected to read two books for just the one class each week. At least he already knew what a historiography was going into the class; the only other second year in the class mispronounced “Gloucester” and looked like they were going to die from embarrassment when one of the third year students laughed quietly into their hand.

And so here he was at two o’clock in the morning on a Wednesday sitting on a washing machine and trying to finish a book so that he could write a reaction paper for a class he had in eight hours. He had only been there for ten minutes when he heard another person enter the laundry room. He didn’t look up immediately, intent as he was on finishing his book. It wasn’t until he noticed the other person’s short stature out of the corner of his eye that he looked up.

Levi, the anti-social grad student who lived in the apartment above his own.

Levi, the asshole who left passive aggressive notes about tracking mud inside.

Levi, the guy who curbstomped someone in front of Moynihan’s the week before.

Levi, the all-around terrifying man who everyone avoided like the plague.

Eren didn’t realize he was staring until he and Levi had been facing each other for a solid two minutes. His eyes went wide and he hurriedly looked back down at his book and tried not to make any further eye contact.

“Hey, kid?” Eren’s head snapped up.

“Yeah?”

“I hate to ask, but I’m short two quarters and I’m not washing my clothes if I can’t dry them.”

“Can’t you run upstairs and get more change?” _Good job, way to mouth off to your scary upstairs neighbor._

“Tons of singles, had to look under my damn couch cushions to find half these coins. Don’t worry if you don’t have extra change on you, it’s fine.” Eren watched as the smaller man hefted his laundry bag up over his shoulder.

“Wait! Yeah, sorry I’m kinda fried right now. I can _lend_ you the quarters.”

“You think I wouldn’t pay you back?”

“I don’t _know_. People can be asses. And I know it’s only fifty cents but…”

“It’s still money and we’re all broke-ass college students?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Eren pulled his change out of his pockets and made sure that he had enough for the dryer for himself before handing the two quarters to Levi. He watched as Levi started to put his own clothing into the washer before putting the coins in and starting the machine. When he straightened up Eren offered his hand out.

“I’m Eren Jaeger.”

“Levi.”

“I know. You live in the apartment above mine.” _And everybody knows who you are and is completely terrified of you._

“Are you the one who burns toast every morning?”

“What?” Eren blinked a few times in confusion. “Mikasa, my sister, always burns the toast. How did you…?”

“I can smell it in my apartment.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Hanji’s experiments have involved a lot of sulfur recently. I can handle some burning bread.”

“Still…” Eren trailed off and frowned. “Who’s Hanji?”

“They’re my crazy roommate. Brown hair in a ponytail, wears glasses that look like goggles.”

“Oh yeah, I almost never see her. I thought she was just a friend since I don’t see them around a lot.”

“ _They_ spend most of their time in the chem lab or doing crazy experiments in our apartment.”

“They?”

“Hanji prefers gender neutral pronouns.”

“Oh. Okay cool. I haven’t done more than say hello to them so I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine.”

They both went silent and Levi went over to the chair near the dryers and sat down backwards to rest his arms on the back of the seat. They were silent and the slosh and hum of the washers settled over them. The soft and rhythmic noises began to lull Eren into sleep and his head kept lowering down only for him to snap up and back to wakefulness a moment later. His eyes swept across words that made no sense, black lines on white paper and nothing more.

“Hey kid, if you’re so exhausted you should sleep.”

“I need to finish this and write a three page reaction paper by ten.”

“And you have how much left to read?” Eren flipped through the book and tried to do math to figure it out but couldn’t get his brain to process everything properly.

“I’m on page 127 and the book is 319 pages. So that’s uh… something around two hundred pages?”

“Yeah. Something like that. What class and professor?”

“History of Modern Europe.” Eren made a disgusted face. “I’m taking it with Gillogly.”

“Oh you’ve got shit luck there. Gin usually teaches it and he’s way better. Sucks for you that you’re taken an awful required class while he’s on sabbatical.” Eren blinked slowly at him.

“Are you in the history department?”

“Master’s thesis focuses on the educational and technological advances under the Abbasid Caliphate.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Eren closed his book and set it aside.

“Are there any other professors I should avoid?”

“What are you looking to focus in?”

“Pre-colonial Latin America.”

“Take as many classes as you can with Brzenska, she’s really tough but really good. Avoid Woerman like the plague though. Ral is good as well but I think she’s going on sabbatical in the fall… who’s your adviser right now?”

“…Woerman”

“Jesus why?”

“I haven’t had a class with him, he just got assigned to me when I declared.”

“Are you taking a class with Brzenska yet?”

“No…”

“You’ll probably want to take both classes she’s teaching in the fall. Meet with her to talk about them right before course registration and ask her to be your adviser. She’ll secretly be overjoyed that she’s the adviser for more than two students. She also makes great hot chocolate.”

“Wow. Thanks!”

“Oh and with Gillogly you really don’t need to put in that much effort. He barely skims your papers. I’d recommend looking up whatever topic you’re reading for on Wikipedia and writing your reaction paper based on that.”

“Are you fucking shitting me?”

“Nope. Get some sleep, I’ll wake you up when your stuff is ready to go in the dryer.”

“Thanks. Like seriously, I owe you.”

“Mm. Not a problem. Get some sleep.”

Eren laid down across the two washing machines and fell asleep almost immediately; the mechanical heartbeat of the washing machines synched up and pulling him quickly into the depths of sleep. He was startled out of the darkness of sleep by the sound of a door closing. He jerked upright and looked blearily around the laundry room but Levi wasn’t there anymore. He glanced at his phone and nearly had a panic attack when he realized that it was after 3.30am. _Shit. He said he was going to wake me up when the washer was done. That was over an hour ago. What the hell? Did he just leave me here and –_

His gaze drifted across the room to the dryers and to the table next to them.

All of his things were neatly folded and in his laundry basket.

 

Exactly a week later found Eren in the laundry room at two in the morning again. This time he was poring over a stack of photocopied documents and highlighting them as he took notes. The laundry room door opened and he looked up to see who it could be and silently hoped that it was Levi who would be walking in.

He grinned when he recognized the man walking through the door. They both regarded one another for a moment before Levi shook his head and started putting his things in the washer.

“You didn’t wake me up when you said you were last week.” Levi looked up at him, an eyebrow raised.

“It looked like you needed the sleep. I put your things in the dryer so you really don’t have anything to complain about.”

“What if I slept so late I couldn’t write my reaction paper? Or slept through my class altogether?” _Well that came out a bit more pissed off than I meant._

“There’s a reason I slammed the door when I was leaving.”

“Gee, thanks.” Eren’s tone was steeped in sarcasm. Levi rolled his eyes and started taking change out of his pockets for the washer. Once it was going he straightened up and held out his hand to Eren.

“Here, the two quarters I owe you.”

“Thanks.”

Levi took up his position sitting backwards on the chair again and Eren went back to reading and taking notes. The familiar hush and hum of the washers settled over them and Eren watched out of the corner of his eye as Levi let his arms rest on the back of the chair so that he could use them to pillow his head. He watched as Levi’s features relaxed and his breathing became deep and even. Eren could easily recognize the degree of exhaustion that Levi was feeling; the dark smudges under his eyes and the less than ideal position that he had fallen asleep in were all familiar to him. When the washers stopped he took his own laundry and put it in the dryer. He contemplated waking Levi up but after last week he figured that he should return the favor and put Levi’s clothing in the dryer as well. He didn’t know where Levi had put his change for the dryer but with the two quarters that Levi had returned to him he had enough for both of their loads of laundry.

The buzz that the dryers made when they finished could only be described as satanic and as usual it startled Eren so badly he nearly fell off of the washer. He was still shocked that it hadn’t woken him up last week, that enough time passed after it that Levi had been able to fold both of their loads of laundry. Just like Eren the week prior, Levi slept through both of the dryers finishing. Eren didn’t usually fold his own laundry until after he was upstairs so he his alone but he was determined to reciprocate Levi’s gesture from the prior week and fold his clothes for him. It was a little more difficult seeing as Levi had a bag and not a basket but he figured it was the best he could do and it wasn’t his fault if things got unfolded when Levi walked back up the stairs.

Throughout the whole affair Levi barely stirred.

Eren let the door slam loudly as he walked out of the laundry room to head back upstairs.

 

Another week passed and Eren found himself putting off laundry an extra day, hoping that Levi regularly did laundry on Wednesdays at two o’clock in the morning.

Unfortunately he found himself completely alone the entire time.

The next morning he woke up and found an envelope had been slid under the door. It contained two dollars’ worth of quarters and a torn off scrap of paper with almost indecipherable writing on it.

> Eren,
> 
> I ended up crashing at a friend’s place last night and missed laundry night / day / whatever. I think I gave you the right number of quarters. I’m really hung over. I guess I’ll see you next week.
> 
> -Levi

Eren grinned a little bit at the note. So it hadn’t been a fluke that they had bumped into each other. _This is… kinda like a weird sort of date thing isn’t it? No. No, not like a date-date, but a thing that we have planned for a date… for a date as in for a day. Oh screw it. I know what I mean, I don’t need to explain it to myself. Laundry doesn’t count as a date. Not that I_ want _to go on a date with him or anything._

 

Another week passed. Eren _technically_ didn’t have enough dirty clothes to necessitate doing laundry since Mikasa had taken a bunch of his stuff to do with her own two days before. In order to justify it he decided that all of his sweatshirts smelled absolutely disgusting and needed to be washed _immediately._

Since he had to search through his closet for said dirty sweatshirts he ended up getting to the laundry room after Levi. He was already halfway done putting his things into the washer and had a scowl on his face. He looked up when Eren walked into the laundry room and Eren could have sworn that Levi’s scowl softened just the tiniest bit. _Not that it matters at all._

“I didn’t know if you were going to show up for our weekly laundry date.” Eren made a gurgling coughing noise and Levi looked at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears.

“Just uh… choked on my own spit.”

“Gross.”

Eren avoided making eye contact with Levi as he moved over to the washer and started putting his things in. He just finished putting everything in and was about to get out his detergent when he went to get change out of his pockets and found… nothing.

“Shit. Seriously?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m short on laundry money.”

“Didn’t I give you two dollars last week? You only needed another fifty cents.”

“I totally forgot and spent it on coffee this morning.” Levi sighed and started going through his pockets.

“Do you need to wash everything you have?”

“No, I can do most of my sweatshirts another day.”

“Good.” Levi pulled a heavy sweatshirt and two towels out from his washer and put them on top of the machine. He then proceeded to start pulling Eren’s clothing out of the washer, throwing the majority of his sweatshirts on top as well. Eren stood frozen for a moment as he watched Levi transferring things from one washer to the other.

“Um wow. Thanks.”

“I don’t want some gross-ass undergrad making my department smell like shit.” Eren puffed up in annoyance and huffed.

“I don’t…” He stopped when he saw the smirk on Levi’s face.

“You’re easy to get riled up, aren’t you?”

There was something beyond an amused smirk that Eren couldn’t place; something a little dangerous, something a little magnetic. He felt himself flush slightly and turned away. He had been in such a rush to get to the laundry room that he hadn’t brought any of his books or assignments with him. He took his usual seat on top of the (empty) washing machine and Levi sat down on the chair. Without the buffer of work or a book or sleep Eren didn’t know what to do as they sat. He perched on the edge of the washer and let his head drop down, watching his feet as he kicked them against the washer door.

“Would it kill you to not make any noise?”

“What?”

“You’re kicking the washer, it’s loud.”

“Sorry. Were you trying to sleep?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay. So what are you doing?”

“Thinking.”

“Thinking about…?”

“It’s nothing. I was…” Levi took in a deep breath and let it out through his nose. “…my thesis defense is coming up soon.”

“So you’re graduating in May?”

“Yep, two months and I’m free of academia.”

“Oh. Congratulations.” _Way to sound excited for him, Eren. I sounded about as enthused as if he just said he was having all four wisdom teeth out at once._

Five minutes of silence lapsed before the washer was done. Levi made no move to get up immediately and since Eren was closer he took the initiative to pull their stuff out and put it into the dryer. He was in the middle of turning around to ask Levi for some change when he realized that Levi had already come up behind him. They were close enough in proximity that he had to tilt his head down slightly to make eye contact and Levi had to tilt his head up to do the same. He could see the smudges under his pale eyes and the tiniest dusting of freckles across his nose – so few that he could probably count them if he wanted to. Eren’s eyes flicked down to Levi’s lips and he bit the inside of his own. He could feel his head bowing lower towards Levi’s face when realization hit him like a bucket of cold water. He jumped back from Levi and stared at him in mild horror. Instead of staying to face down what had just happened he quickly ran out of the laundry room, pretending that he hadn’t seen the lost and hurt look on Levi’s face.

 

When he woke up he found his laundry neatly folded in his basket and sitting outside his apartment door. His “dirty” sweatshirts were in a tied up plastic bag. There was no note.

Eren started doing laundry on Monday mornings.

 

It was a late morning in mid-May and Eren had just finished his last exam when he walked through the front door of the apartment building. He found himself almost immediately shoved up against the wall in the hallway and he immediately brought his fists up off his attacker when he realized who it was.

“Levi?”

“You’ve been avoiding me for almost two months.”

“I’ve been busy!”

“Bullshit.” Eren felt incredibly self-conscious under Levi’s gaze; there was hurt in his eyes and Eren knew exactly who had put it there. He swallowed thickly before speaking again.

“Why does it even matter?”

“Because I was thinking…” Levi’s jaw clenched and he turned so that he didn’t have to meet Eren’s eyes. “Because that night I was thinking about how to ask you out.”

“...Really?” Eren felt as though his stomach had fallen out and… it wasn’t a bad feeling.

“Yeah. If that’s… if you’re interested.” Levi still wouldn’t look up at him so Eren bent his head down to try and force Levi to meet his eyes.

“I’d like that. And I’ll pay… I owe you laundry money.”

“Damn straight you do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not have been a history minor who hated doing historiographies. I also may or may not have had a Professor Gillogly who had us do tons of readings to write reaction papers that he didn't actually read fully.
> 
> Thankfully I never lived anywhere with coin-op washers and dryers.
> 
> Self-plug: If you want to commission me to write, you can visit my [commissions page](http://mybrainproblems.tumblr.com/commissions) over on Tumblr.


End file.
